Sajeeb Wazed Joy has urged the young Bangladeshis to become entrepreneurs and create jobs for others as well instead of focusing on getting jobs for themselves after study.

He made the call in his address to a group of youths at Youth on Politics, a session of Young Bangla with Sajeeb Wazed, an event organised by the ruling Awami League’s research wing Centre for Research and Information or CRI at a Dhaka hotel on Tuesday.

The prime minister’s ICT affairs advisor highlighted the possibilities of the IT sector as the government is focusing on its “Digital Bangladesh| initiative.

“Please don’t focus only on getting jobs. Our economy is expanding. Become entrepreneurs and stand on your own feet,” Joy said.

“Don’t depend on others, the government or any organisation or company,” he added.

Youths atrtending the Young Bangla with Sajeeb Wazed, an event organised by Centre for Research and Information or CRI at a Dhaka hotel on Tuesday. Photo: Mahmud Zaman Ovi

Joy, who did his post-graduation in public administration from Harvard University after studying computer science in the US and India, is himself an IT entrepreneur.

“Open your own firm. You may think what the country and the people stand to gain if you do business. You will be able to employ others in your company,” he said.

“Please come forward and do something on your own for the country,” he added.

The prime ministerial adviser noted that the government has limited scope to employ people through Bangladesh Civil Service and other exams.

“Thousands of young people are getting degrees from schools, colleges and universities every year but most of them don’t have the scope to get government jobs because the number of government jobs is only 5,000,” he said.

“If you take initiative to do business, open a small shop, or start freelancing, you will pay taxes. These taxes will be added to our economy and used to serve the people.”

“Your initiatives will take the country and the people forward in this way,” he said.

Joy described how the government was promoting entrepreneurship by opening vocational training centres and programmes across Bangladesh.

“We have trained freelancers and now we have over 600,000 freelancers, which is second in the world,” he said.

Around 250 youths, including the winners of Joy Bangla Youth Awards or Young Bangla Achievers, representatives of ICT Division’s Student to Startup programme, and different educational institutions attended the programme moderated by the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant Shah Ali Farhad.

Joy also took questions from the youths and gave his take on criticisms of the development achieved by the Awami League government.

In response to criticism over lack of employment, he said: “It’s not right. Our unemployment rate is 4.2 percent only. Economically, it is considered as total employment because 100 percent employment is impossible.”

EYEING AI, IOT, ROBOTICS

The government is shifting its focus to Artificial Intelligence or AI, Internet of Things or IoT and robotics, according to the ICT advisor.

He told the session - Digital Future on Youth Development – that the ICT Division would organise special training on these under the Leveraging ICT Project.

“We will go ahead of other countries if we arrange training and research facilities on them. There are not many experts on these matters as these are new Possibilities will emerge if we do research on these matters on our own,” he said.

Bangladesh now depends on other countries for the trainings on software or systems, he pointed out.

“So we want to shift the focus to such issues that will help us in the long run. Big Data, IoT, robotics and microprocessor designing will give us long-term independence in technology,” Joy added.

He also emphasised creating Bangladesh’s own cyber security experts in quick time.